Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-05-04
AGED wONDER-WORKERS.
old Dutch Women in Pennsylvania
Who Profess TO Practice WITCH
craft.

b1iSduid, dic uiduy Oiu WOulcu WHOAu
the people believe to possess super
natural powers. visited two of these
witch women, as they are called-Bar-
bara Fisher and Mother Roske. Bar
bara lived in the Dunkard settlement,
in rude cabin In the mountains, six
or seven miles from Reinholdsvllle.
| She must be now eighty-hve years old.
She was active ald apparently physi-
cally strong when saw her, but much
bent and wrlnkled, with hair as white
as snow. Canning and shrewdness
were plainly pictured on her face, and
her eyes were as keen as hawks, and
not much larger. She, like all OF the
"wOnder-working" women of the re-
gIon. has an ancient volume printed in
the German language, containing many
fantastic signs and symbols, and known
as mystery book" Some of these
curious volumes are said to be over
two hundred years old, and were
brought from Germany by ancestors
of the present wonder-workers, who
were themselves adopts in witch-dOc-
toring, No alien hand is allowed to
touch these sacred books, and but few
persons have ever seen inside theI
heavy covers. Barbara Fisher con-
lines her ministrations to her neighbors,
and they 60 to her from miles around.
Husbands take their wives, fathers
their children and young men their
sweethearts to Mother Fisher for treat
ment for all ills and the removal of
evil spells, and to obtain charms that
will be potent IN love and business.
She will, for fee, give an applicant
a charm to ward off lightning from his
Buildings, confound his enemies by
bewitching them, making their wells
run dry, forcing their cows to give
bloody milk, prostrating their families
with sickness, or bringing any dire
punishment upon them that the appll-
cant will pay for. She will undertake
the Job of stunting the growth of a
baby, destroying rIval's beauty,
separating man and wife, settling
| lovers quarrels, laying at rest a
lovers doubts as to the falthfulness of
his sweetheart or convincing him that
she Is false, procuring desired marriages,
! OF doing anything equally absurd either
in the way Of scattering blessings or.
calling down evils, according to the
desires Of her customers and the size
or the fee. Old Mother ROske is said
to be ninety years old, and she looks
il. She lives alone and her most
ambitious feat in wonder-working was
/ the seeing of gold mine In the vicin-
ity, and collecting a fee from every
farmer in the neighborhood for the
privilege of digging nightly for the
precious deposit. After pretty much
the whole of the ground in the COM
munity had been turned up, and no
gold was found, Mother Roske an
| nOunced that the work might as well
cease, as it was evident that some one
among the diggeIs had COW with
blood in her horns, and utill the COW
could be found and killed, and the
blood drawn from the horns and spilled
on the ground at midnight when the
moon was in its first quarter, it would
be useless to look farther for the
treasure. The farmers spent much
time trying to find such COW among
their stock, and. although that was
several years ago, whenever cow IS
killed to this day IN that vicinity her
horns are sawed off in hopes that the I
blood may be found and used as /
Mother Roske directed, in order that 1
the gold mine may be discovered.
Some of the charms prescribed by
these witch women, and faithfully used
and believed in by the credulous people
among whom they operate, 1t IS mild to
call ridiculous. In the potency of
wltch-haZel, the wonder-makers rely
greatly. Young women are instructed
to carry its leaves in their bosOms as a
love-charm; so long rs they are there
worn no rival can win their sweet
hearts from them. If they would dream
of their lovers, they must sleep with
witch-hazel leaves under their pillows:
but, in all cases, the charm must be
by the wOnder-maker, To
make an enemy's well run dry, ashes
of witch-hazel must be forced into the !.
mouth of toad over which the witch
woman has held an lncantatiOn. By
dropping the toad thus prepared into
tbs enemy's well the water Will leave :
it. One of the worst things that can $
befall these superstitious farmers is to l
have COW give bloody milk. That is
regarded as the genuine work of the |
devil himself. Consequently, if one !
man Is piIing for vengeance on s
another he wreaks it to his satisfaction L
by obtaining a toad which has been fed
on witch-hazel by a wonder-worker, e
aud placing it where the enemy Will ?
step on it. That will turn his cows t
milk into blood with Ieatness and dis g
patch. a
One of the jobs that requires nice
work on the part of the wonder-worker /
IS the separation of a man and wife, O
which seems TO be another favoritp O
way these farmers have OF seeking ven. S
yeaHce for wrong done them. The de- :
signing and heartless person who would
tear man and wife as under must first n
get hair from the head Of a woman n
whose lair is the opposite in color TO n
hat of the wife of the man in whose n
family the separation is desired. The y
hair, however, must under no eircum- :
stances be red. Then the simple fact
must be ascertained as to which was II
BORN the nearest to running water, the o
husband or the wife. Whichever one \
t may be, that Is the one who must be O
,perated upon. Something that the Z,
husband and wife have both worn at
he same time In their lives must be Sc 4,
ured and burned, and the hair held In II
he smoke that arises The smoked Ia
airs mission is then to be buried at n
he side of the house where the 8,
oomed couple live, so that water from f.
he caves may drop on the spot. The
Iame of the person who Is being oper- .,
ted upon is then written on piece Of =
aper and buried where the shadow of -
cast By the light Of the moon - :.
will fail upon it. If the man and wife y. y
% not Immediately quarrel, and the ~
uarrel is not followed by the wife VI
acking up and returning to her fa-
hers after that, it Is prima facie evil a.
ence that the operator was little
hort of faith in the infallibility of the IL
pell, and he can not hope to succeed 81
a hi. fell designs until he stands ia a.
u east wind for three successive days d.
nd prays fervently for abiding faith in g
Ie power Of the witchwomen.
d
Envy is fixed on merit; and, like a
ore ave IA offended with evarvthino IL